<h2>Name</h2>
<p>
The Surah has been entitled As-Sajdah after the theme of <em>Sajdah</em>
(prostration) as expressed in verse 15.
</p>
<h2>Period of Revelation</h2>
<p>
From the style of the Surah it appears that it was sent down during the
middle Makkah period, more particularly in its initial stage, for one
does not find in its background that severity of the persecution and
tyranny which one finds in the Surahs sent down in the later stages.
</p>
<h2>Theme and Topics</h2>
<p>
The main theme of the Surah is to remove the doubts of the people
concerning <em>Tauhid</em>, the Hereafter and the Prophethood, and to invite
them to all these three realities. The disbelievers of Makkah, when
they talked of the Holy Prophet in private, said to one another, "This
person is forging strange things sometimes he gives news of what will
happen after death. He says: when you have become dust, you will be
called to render your accounts, and there will be Hell and Heaven.
Sometimes he says: these gods and goddesses and saints are
nonentities: One God alone is the Deity. And sometimes he says: the
discourses which I recite are not my own but Allah's Word. All these
are strange things which he presents."The answer to these doubts and
misgivings forms the theme and subject matter of this Surah. 
</p>
<p>
In this
connection, the disbelievers have been told: "Most certainly it is
Allah's Word, which has been sent down in order to arouse a people who
are sunk in heedlessness, being deprived of the bounties and blessings
of Prophethood. How can you call it a fabrication when its having been
sent dawn from Allah is manifest and self evident?" 
</p>
<p>
Then, they have
been asked, "Use your common sense and judge for yourselves which of
the things presented by the Quran is strange and novel?Look at the
administration of the heavens and the earth: consider your own
creation and structure. Don't these things testify to the teaching
which this Prophet is presenting before you in the Quran? Does the
system of the universe point to <em>Tauhid</em> or to <em>shirk</em>? When you consider
this whole system and your own creation, does your intellect testify
that the One Who has given you your present existence, will not be
able to create you once again?" 
</p>
<p>
Then a scene of the Hereafter has been
depicted, the fruits of belief and the evil consequences of disbelief
have been mentioned and the people exhorted to give up disbelief even
before they meet their doom and accept the teaching of the Quran,
which will be to their own advantage in the Hereafter. 
</p>
<p>
Then they have
been told: It is Allah's supreme Mercy that He does not seize man
immediately for his errors to punish him finally and decisively but
warns him beforehand by afflicting him with small troubles and
hardships and calamities and losses and strokes of misfortune so that
he may wake up and take admonition. 
</p>
<p>
Then it is said: "This is not the
first and novel event of its kind that a Book has been sent down upon
a man from God. Before this the Book had been sent upon Moses also,
which you all know. There is nothing strange in this at which you
should marvel. Be assured that this Book has come down from God, and
note it well that the same will happen now as has already happened in
the time of Moses. Leadership now will be bestowed only on those who
will accept this Divine Book. Those who reject it shall be doomed to
failure." 
</p>
<p>
Then the disbelievers of Makkah have been admonished to the
effect:"See the end of the doomed communities of the past by whose
ruined habitations you pass during your trade journeys. Will you like
to meet the same doom yourself? Do not be deluded by the apparent and
superficial. Today you see that no one is listening to Muhammad (upon
whom be Allah's peace) except a few young men and some slaves and poor
men, and he is being made the target of curses and ugly remarks from
every side. From this you have formed the wrong impression that his
mission will fail. But this is only a deception of your eyes. Don't
you see the phenomenon in your daily life that a land previously lying
absolutely barren starts swelling with vegetation and plant life
everywhere just by a single shower of the rain though before this no
one could ever imagine that under the layers of its soil there lay
hidden such treasures of greenery and herbage?" 
</p>
<p>
In conclusion, the
Holy Prophet has been addressed to the effect: "These people mock at
what you say and ask as to when you will attain this decisive victory.
Tell them: when the time comes for the final judgment regarding you
and us, believing then will not profit you at all. If you have to
believe, believe now. But if you intend to await the final judgment,
then await it as you please."
</p>

